Rollo and the Founding of Normandy (911): Saint-Clair-sur-Epte

In 911 King Charles the Simple of West Francia granted the Viking leader Rollo and his followers the lands of the lower Seine around Rouen, in an agreement traditionally placed at Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In return Rollo promised to defend the area against other raiders and to become a Christian. The territory, enlarged by Rollo and his successors, became the duchy of Normandy, whose rulers would later conquer England and play a major role in medieval Europe.

Background: the Vikings on the Seine

From the 840s Scandinavian fleets used the River Seine as a highway into the heart of the West Frankish kingdom. They sacked Paris in 845, as described in the article on the Viking sack of Paris, raided monasteries such as Jumièges and Saint-Wandrille, and sometimes overwintered on islands in the river. Frankish kings tried tribute payments, fortified bridges and occasional alliances with one Viking group against another.

The great Siege of Paris in 885–886 showed both the strength of the raiders and the limits of royal power. Emperor Charles the Fat bought the besiegers off, and his empire broke apart soon afterwards. In West Francia, power was divided between the Carolingian king Charles the Simple, who ruled from 898 after a disputed succession, and great nobles such as Robert, marquis of Neustria, brother of the late King Odo.

By the early 10th century, some Viking groups had settled in the lower Seine valley around Rouen, a former Roman city and archbishopric. Their leader by about 900 was the man the Franks called Rollo.

Who was Rollo?

Rollo’s early life is obscure. His name is a Latin form of the Old Norse Hrólfr. The main narrative source, Dudo of Saint-Quentin, wrote his history of the early Norman rulers around 996–1015 at the request of Rollo’s descendants. Dudo says Rollo came from Denmark and gives a long, highly literary account of his adventures.

Later Icelandic and Orkney sagas, written in the 12th and 13th centuries, identify Rollo with Göngu-Hrólfr, “Hrólfr the Walker”, said to have been so large no horse could carry him. In these accounts he was a son of Rognvald, earl of Møre in western Norway, outlawed by King Harald Fairhair. Some historians accept the Norwegian identification; others favour a Danish origin. The evidence does not allow a firm answer, and Rollo’s followers likely came from several parts of the Scandinavian world, including the British Isles.

Contemporary Frankish sources say very little about him before 911. Dudo and later Norman tradition claimed he took part in the siege of Paris in 885–886, but no source of that time mentions him there.

The Battle of Chartres, 911

In 911 Vikings under Rollo besieged Chartres. On 20 July 911 a Frankish relief force led by Richard, duke of Burgundy, and Robert of Neustria, supported by a sortie from the town encouraged by Bishop Gantelme, defeated the attackers. The battle did not destroy Rollo’s army, but it showed that he could not easily expand by force, and may have made both sides ready to negotiate.

The agreement of 911

Later in 911 Charles the Simple and Rollo reached a settlement. Dudo places the meeting at Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, a village on the River Epte, which marked the border between the Vexin and the lands to the west. No written treaty survives, and the precise terms must be pieced together from later sources.

The key contemporary evidence is a royal charter of Charles the Simple dated 918. In it the king refers to lands he had granted to the Northmen of the Seine, namely Rollo and his companions, for the defence of the kingdom. This confirms that a grant had been made and that its purpose was to turn Vikings into defenders of the Seine.

According to Dudo and the general consensus of historians, the main elements were:

• Land: Rollo received the region between the Epte and the sea around the lower Seine, centred on Rouen, roughly the later dioceses of Rouen, Lisieux and Évreux. The exact limits are debated.
• Defence: Rollo and his men were to protect the Seine valley and the kingdom against other Viking fleets.
• Conversion: Rollo agreed to be baptised and to bring his followers into the Christian Church.
• Loyalty: Rollo became, at least in principle, a vassal of the West Frankish king.

Dudo adds that Rollo married Charles’s daughter Gisela. Historians doubt this, since no such daughter is otherwise known. Rollo’s known partner was Poppa, described as the daughter of a Frankish count from Bayeux, whom he took in a Scandinavian-style union, and who was the mother of his son and successor, William Longsword.

Rollo’s baptism

In 912 Rollo was baptised at Rouen by Archbishop Franco. Robert of Neustria acted as his godfather, and Rollo took the Christian name Robert. Dudo describes him giving lands to churches in the days after his baptism. The pattern resembles the baptism of the Danish king Guthrum by Alfred of Wessex in 878, which also bound a Viking leader to a Christian ruler as a spiritual son.

Key people

Rollo (c. 860s–c. 930) was the founder of the Norman ruling dynasty. Contemporary Frankish annals call him a leader of the Northmen; his own descendants presented him as a heroic founder.

Charles the Simple (879–929) was king of West Francia from 898 to 922. His nickname, Latin simplex, meant “straightforward” or “honest” rather than foolish. He was deposed in 922 and died in captivity in 929.

Robert of Neustria (died 923) was the most powerful noble of northern France, brother of King Odo and grandfather of Hugh Capet. He was Rollo’s godfather and briefly became king himself in 922.

Dudo of Saint-Quentin (c. 965–before 1043) was a Frankish cleric who wrote the first history of the Normans for Rollo’s grandson Richard I and great-grandson Richard II. His work is the main source for Rollo but mixes fact with legend and flattery.

Expansion of Rollo’s territory

The 911 grant was only the beginning. The annalist Flodoard of Reims, the most reliable contemporary source for these decades, records that in 924 King Rudolph of West Francia granted the Normans the regions of Bayeux and Le Mans, after fighting between Franks and Normans. Rollo’s son William Longsword, who succeeded him around 927–928, received further lands in 933, generally identified with the Cotentin and Avranchin in the west.

By the mid-10th century, the Norman territory had reached roughly the boundaries of the later duchy. Rollo himself died around 930; the exact year is unknown, with estimates from about 928 to 933. He was buried in Rouen Cathedral, where a later tomb with a stone effigy marks his memory.

Consequences

The settlement of 911 had a lasting effect on France and beyond. The Northmen of the Seine quickly adopted Christianity, the French language and Frankish institutions. Within two or three generations their rulers were thoroughly French in speech and outlook, while keeping links with the Scandinavian world. Old Norse appears to have survived for a while around Bayeux, and Dudo says Rollo’s grandson Richard I was sent there to learn the Danish tongue.

The newcomers left a mark in place names. Norse elements appear in names ending in -tot, from topt (homestead), as in Yvetot; -bec, from bekkr (stream), as in Caudebec; and -fleur, from a Germanic word for an inlet or estuary, as in Honfleur and Harfleur. Normandy also took over Norse words related to the sea and shipbuilding, some of which passed into French.

Rollo’s descendants became counts and later dukes of Normandy. His great-great-great-grandson, Duke William II, invaded England in 1066 and won the Battle of Hastings, becoming King William I. Other Normans, not of Rollo’s family, carved out lordships in southern Italy and Sicily and took part in the crusades.

Myths and facts

Legacy

Rollo became a founding hero for the Normans and later for the people of Normandy. In 1863 a bronze statue of him by Arsène Letellier was set up in Rouen, and a copy was later given to Ålesund in Norway, reflecting the Norwegian tradition of his origins. In 2011 Normandy marked the 1,100th anniversary of its foundation.

For historians, the creation of Normandy is a key example of how Viking raiders could become settlers and rulers within Christian Europe, much as the Danes did in the English Danelaw after the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum. The Frankish strategy of granting land to one group of Vikings to defend against others, tried before with little success, worked unusually well on the Seine.

Timeline

• 845: Vikings sack Paris after sailing up the Seine.
• 885–886: Siege of Paris; Charles the Fat pays off the Vikings.
• 898: Charles the Simple becomes sole king of West Francia.
• 911, 20 July: Rollo’s attack on Chartres is defeated.
• 911: Agreement between Charles the Simple and Rollo, traditionally at Saint-Clair-sur-Epte.
• 912: Rollo is baptised at Rouen, taking the name Robert.
• 918: A charter of Charles the Simple refers to the land granted to Rollo.
• 924: King Rudolph grants the Normans Bayeux and Le Mans.
• c. 927–928: William Longsword succeeds Rollo.
• c. 930: Death of Rollo.

Why it matters

The agreement of 911 turned a Viking army into the founders of a lasting European principality. Normandy became one of the most powerful states of the Middle Ages, and its rulers’ conquest of England in 1066 reshaped English language, law and society.